Sadly, I’m guessing that Ballmer’s crass remark may end up being true if Sony take too long to release the PS3. At the very least Microsoft will make big inroads in western markets, and stand to do well in Asia if (a) the console is much sexier than the current version, and (b) they managed to sign some big Asian games studios. Admittedly neither of these is very likely.

I have no problem if Microsoft become a bigger player in the console market. The original XBox definitely raised the standards of what we could expect from console performance, and without XBox there would be no one to keep Sony honest1. What I don’t want to see is Microsoft pulling a Windows on the console market. That would be very bad for all involved, and would just give Ballmer the meathead more to crow about.

4 Replies to “Ballmer starts the smack talk”

Valid point, but my comeback is always that the PS2 was the first non-cartridge backwards-compatible console. Are you saying that compatibility is now a non-negotiable requirement of consoles?

But yes, MS would have to pull of a heck of a job to sell a non-backwards-compatible console against a (presumably) backwards compatible PS3.

I find it interesting that people are saying emulation would be too difficult. It’s not like you’re trying to emulate an entire x86 PC. There is a defined set of APIs and hardware that you are emulating. Surely this is not impossible?